I was a student for many years (5 years of undergrad, 2.5 years of grad school), and I became very comfortable with always being able to look at the syllabus and my grade and know what I needed to do and how well I was performing. Work isn’t like that. Like I think is normal, I get a performance review once a year. I find this unsettling, because even though I come in and do decent work, I still often feel like I’m doing something “wrong” and worry that I’m secretly on the cusp of being fired. Folks who have maybe been working for longer than I have, how do you feel and stay confident in your work?
Impostor syndrome is a thing and it’s common. I’ve been in my industry for 15 years and still lack confidence and feel like everyone else is better than me. The approach that worked for me is to know what I’m aware I do a good job at, and make sure the people who can influence my performance reviews are aware of it. Play to your strengths. In the corporate environment, what matters is what you’re perceived as, not what you actually are. If your performance reviews are good, then you should be fine and know what to keep on doing. If you have a good relationship with your manager, it would also help to ask them directly what things they think you can improve on. Don’t wait for the performance review to tell you that, so you can work on it before it goes on record.
Yeah, impostor syndrome is a good way to describe it, and it does indeed suck. That’s all good advice though, thank you! It is such a strange change of pace to be judged on perception and not purely ability, especially since I feel like I’m not very good at reading other people and knowing how to manage relationships like that. People skills aren’t my forte, hence a career in engineering lol
Fortunately I think my manager does view me well, so I can try to reassure myself with that
I can add that I’ve built a career on rubbing elbows with the right ppl. You don’t have to be the best, you just have to be likeable and decently competent. As bad as it sounds, people relations first, productivity second.
I’m not the type to slum it for a paycheck, but I’ve found that good perceptions are everything. Balance technical ability with relationship management and you’ll be golden.
Oh, and I still regularly struggle with imposter syndrome, despite the above…
I’ve been a carpenter since I was 18 and a finish carpenter since i was 30. I’ll be 52 this year. So I’ve been doing this for 34 years. By all regards, I’m an expert in my field. My work has been on magazine covers, my work has won awards for architects and designers. I’m known by name by top builders and firms in my area. I now run jobs as a superintendent and/or project manager. I get calls to come work for other companies on the regular.
I still have zero idea why. Like, I just tell people what to do in an order that makes sense. And before that, I beat nails into wood. It wasn’t till about 3 or 4 years ago when my wife took me aside and explained to my face that, yeah, I’m really good at my job that I started to realize that, yeah, I’m pretty good at my job. But everyday, driving in, I’m still just a kid that’s in over his head. I don’t feel confident at work. I know on one level I’m doing OK, I mean I must be, right? But I just come in and do my best and hope it’s good enough. Turns out, that it usualy is good enough.
And I can tell you this. Anyone that walks around super confident in their work, usually sucks at their job. I’ve seen dozens of people claim that they’re the best around, only to get axed or laid off as soon as possible. Don’t bother being confident in your work, be confident that you’re doing the best that you can do and be confident that you have the ability to keep learning.
Anyone that walks around super confident in their work, usually sucks at their job.
I make it a genuine rule that anyone who has to go out of their way to tell me how great they are, is not someone I am going to believe. Especially if it’s the first thing out of their mouth.
If it’s mentioned casually after X amount of months of working with them, then I’ll stop and take notice
I think the bigger factor is, someone who already thinks they’re great probably isn’t working on noticing and improving their weaknesses. Someone who thinks they still have a lot to learn is putting a lot of effort into improving.
So, especially if they’ve felt that way for any significant length of time, it’s no wonder which person will end up being better.
It’s this exactly. The minute you stop learning, or think you know it all, is the minute you start declining. There is always something new to learn, some new innovation, a new system or procedure. I believe this is true for absolutely everything. I think it’s why older generations get bitchy about “these kids today” too. Shit changes and people stagnate because they know it all already.
But just keep a clear head, know that life is dynamic and try to find the joy in the process of getting better, don’t get hung up on the goal of doing it perfect or being the best. Anyone of value will recognize your effort to simply improve.
I can’t speak for others, but some people… just… don’t. I’m one of them. Perpetual impostor syndrome for almost a full decade at the same company.
I might simply genuinely be incompetent but too nice to fire, I dunno.
Focus on being trustworthy more than your performance.
I recently saw a video from Simon Sinek that helped me understand what is valued in a team member. It’s only 2 and a half minutes long, give it a watch.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=PTo9e3ILmms
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Unfortunately performance reviews are basically made to make you feel that way and to have them prepared for just that. Its not completely intentional but most bussinesses have layoffs on a regular basis (at least in tech) some just go to where they keep a core and contract out a lot. Those layoffs hit leadership to on top of people leaving since loyalty works both ways. This causes what you do to change from when they set your goals at the begining of the year to what you are doing at the end. Most managers should sorta realize that and take you into account. If my reviews are not positive I take that to mean the company does not like my work and a sign to look for someplace that needs my skillset more.
It’s really hard to get fired once you’ve been hired.
Imagine having to talk to a bunch of people, read a ton of resumes, train people, and then at least a fifty fifty chance they are worse than you at your worst and they need to start all over.
You either need to be a personality that people who can fire you just hate and don’t want to be around, or be so bad at your job that people will volunteer for one of the tasks they least like doing over the course of their job just to get rid of you.
Or, money just dries up and they need to make cuts, in which case it doesn’t matter how good you are unless it’s between you and someone else, and even then it’s going to be weird shit like who has a family or who made them laugh at the Christmas party that’s the deciding factor because it’s actually really hard for most people to correctly gauge the capacity and skill of others.
The secret to being seen as a great value to the company is to just do work you feel like is pretty good, and not give any fucks beyond that.
That’s the neat thing, I don’t.
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To be fair, you are always on the cusp of being fired/laid off. Even if you’re the backbone of the company, the best employee, etc.
Also remember that expectations of young people in a lot of businesses are very low. That’s why they pay the young so poorly 🤷.
If you seem to be getting work done and your boss isn’t bitching then you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. Don’t worry about it.
Also, when you’re young change jobs every year or two! It’s the best way to make considerably more money over time and no, it will not hurt your resume in the slightest. It merely shows initiative and the fact that everyone wants you (i.e. you’re competent).
Welcome to imposter syndrome, it means you’re a professional.
As far as how you can be more comfortable that heavily depends heavily on what your job is. Some jobs have more direct feedback than others. But largely it will just take time. You’re still the new guy from the sound of it so it will take time to learn how your workplace works and what the exact expectations are. In the mean time just remember that as long as you aren’t consistently getting negative feedback on the same things then odds are you’re doing perfectly fine. Doing things wrong ocasionally is expected because you are human, but as long as you are learning from those times then you are already doing better than a lot of people. If nobody is telling you that you aren’t meeting expectations at your reviews then either you are meeting expectations or you have a bad manager.
What helps me is working with and helping new hires. Showed me how far I have come and how much I have grown.
Trust your manager and the people who hired you. They picked your for a reason. Sometimes it’s not what you think makes a good employee in this position, but something much more specific to the team or situation you’re in. If in doubt: Ask!
Many times people who come straight from uni don’t feel productive enough, because they can’t be productive for 8 hours straight. But that’s normal. Staring at the ceiling blankly on occasion is normal too. If you’re doing your best and the matter you’re working with is working well for you, then you’re very likely fine.
There’s always a bit of impostor syndrome in all of us, but still try to get comfortable and trust your colleagues. Ask for feedback from your superior, if you’re unsure.
Get to know the people you work with and learn who you can bounce ideas off of.
Once you have a couple of work friends you can more easily figure out what those around you think of you.
I was in school while working (in my 40s no less) and as part of my classes I was asked to poll my coworkers about my strengths and weaknesses.
I learned that I was liked, valued, and that it was noticed when I was out sick, which was often.
It really helped me as I just assumed nobody really noticed me at all.
Chances are that you are the one judging yourself.
Also, be the one who speaks up in meetings. It helps give others permission to speak up as well.
Well, I can review my own performance more regularly, for one. I know what my sales numbers are and what they should be and what my coworkers’ numbers are. As long as I’m in the top third I’m satisfied, as long as I’m in the top two and my take-home is at or above the previous year’s for the same month I’m happy.
I also solicity feedback from both management and patrons and while management always wants to be able to give criticism, you can tell when they’re searching; patrons are more honest and immediate.
But I’ve been working a long time.
For you, you can request more frequent performance reviews or coaching. Any decent manager will respond positively (if not actually helpfully) to that sort of request. Do you have a mentor in the workplace? They can also give feedback and coaching.
Worth noting is that the feeling of being or doing something “wrong” without much evidence to support it suggests a little bit of imposter syndrome. It’s a very, very, very common feeling and is almost expected in any sort of a technical field. I have dealt with it personally and it sucks. The thing that helps me is the knowledge that if I was doing something that wasn’t up to the standard or wrong, someone would intervene. Even if it was to just sit me down and tell me “Hey, this sucks and you need to do better”.
Drugs probably.
Everyone is dumb as fuck. Me too, thanks.
